A bipartisan group of 84 lawmakers in the Texas House has called for the state's Board of Pardon and Paroles to grant clemency to a Texas death row inmate.
Robert Roberson was convicted in 2002 of shaking his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, to death at his home in Palestine, Texas.
Shaken baby syndrome is a controversial child abuse theory that has since been discredited and has led to many wrongful convictions across the country. An appeals court in New Jersey ruled in 2023 that shaken baby syndrome was “junk science.”
On Feb. 1, 2002, Nikki was ill with pneumonia and had a fever of 104.5 when she collapsed later that night. Roberson rushed his daughter to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Roberson’s attorney, Gretchen Sween, argued there is evidence that shows Nikki died from pneumonia.
“She was a very sick child given inappropriate medication. She also at some point in the night fell out of bed and bumped her head,” Sween told TPR.
Sween added that Roberson has autism, and he was arrested and convicted because he had a non-typical reaction to his daughter’s death.
The state lawmakers, a group of nearly three dozen scientists and doctors, and other advocates filed letters in support of a clemency petition Roberson's attorneys filed Tuesday.
The letter argued his case was riddled with inaccurate medical testimony and faulty evidence.
“More than a decade ago, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 344, which allowed challenges to convictions that were based on disproven or incomplete science," read the bipartisan petition. "That law passed with unanimous support of the Texas House because we recognized that innocent people are sometimes wrongfully convicted based on scientific evidence that later turns out to be wrong.”
The lawmakers added they were “dismayed to learn that this law has not been applied as intended and has not been a pathway to relief — or even a new trial — for people like Robert."
Roberson has maintained his innocence while being held on death row for more than 20 years. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals previously halted his execution in 2016. But in 2023, the state’s highest criminal court decided that doubt over the cause of his daughter’s death was not enough to overturn his death sentence.
Roberson would be the first person in the U.S. to be executed based on the discredited shaken baby syndrome.
His execution is scheduled for Oct. 17. The decision on clemency is ultimately up to Gov. Greg Abbott.
"It is our hope that Gov. Abbott and the Board will do the right thing and lead with truth and justice," said Nan Tolson, director of Texas Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, acknowledging how rare a bipartisan effort like this and that it is even rarer for clemency to be granted.
She added: "These diverse voices are united in a widespread growing consensus that Texas is scheduled to executive an innocent person on Oct. 17."
David Martin Davies and KERA's Toluwani Osibamowo contributed to this report.
